Cornell University Pressonixsuitesupport@onixsuite.com20180222T0646ZengCOM.ONIXSUITE.97808014498640301Cornell University Press020801449863039780801449864159780801449864050100BB019.25in026.13in0820oz0123.50cm0215.57cm08567gr0101Anatomy of the Red BrigadesThe Religious Mind-set of Modern Terrorists1A0101Onixsuite Contributor ID4490Alessandro OrsiniOrsini, AlessandroAlessandroOrsiniLUISS University of RomeAlessandro Orsini is Director of the Observatory on International Security at LUISS University of Rome, Department of Political Science, and Research Affiliate at the Center for International Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of <I>Anatomy of the Red Brigades</I>, also from Cornell.06Alessandro Orsini, LUISS University of Romehttp://docenti.luiss.it/sociologia-orsini/curriculum/2B06engeng01Onixsuite Contributor ID4491Sarah J. NodesNodes, Sarah J.Sarah J.NodesSarah Jane Nodes is a translator who lives in Rome.101eng02eng002960380710HIS02000010POL03700010SOC05100012JPWL24Cornell U.P. - website hierarchyC02Sociology24Cornell U.P. - website hierarchyH04History / Europe24Cornell U.P. - website hierarchyH14History / Intellectual24Cornell U.P. - website hierarchyP13Political Science / Security Studies24Cornell U.P. - website hierarchyY05Political Philosophy and Theory941DST93NHD93JBFK93JPWL01010300<P>
The Red Brigades were a far-left terrorist group in Italy formed in 1970 and active all through the 1980s. Infamous around the world for a campaign of assassinations, kidnappings, and bank robberies intended as a "concentrated strike against the heart of the State," the Red Brigades' most notorious crime was the kidnapping and murder of Italy's former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978. In the late 1990s, a new group of violent anticapitalist terrorists revived the name Red Brigades and killed a number of professors and government officials. Like their German counterparts in the Baader-Meinhof Group and today's violent political and religious extremists, the Red Brigades and their actions raise a host of questions about the motivations, ideologies, and mind-sets of people who commit horrific acts of violence in the name of a utopia.</p>
<P>
In the first English edition of a book that has won critical acclaim and major prizes in Italy, Alessandro Orsini contends that the dominant logic of the Red Brigades was essentially eschatological, focused on purifying a corrupt world through violence. Only through revolutionary terror, Brigadists believed, could humanity be saved from the putrefying effects of capitalism and imperialism. Through a careful study of all existing documentation produced by the Red Brigades and of all existing scholarship on the Red Brigades, Orsini reconstructs a worldview that can be as seductive as it is horrifying. Orsini has devised a micro-sociological theory that allows him to reconstruct the group dynamics leading to political homicide in extreme-left and neonazi terrorist groups. This "subversive-revolutionary feedback theory" states that the willingness to mete out and suffer death depends, in the last analysis, on how far the terrorist has been incorporated into the revolutionary sect.</p>
<P>
Orsini makes clear that this political-religious concept of historical development is central to understanding all such self-styled "purifiers of the world." From Thomas Müntzer's theocratic dream to Pol Pot's Cambodian revolution, all the violent "purifiers" of the world have a clear goal: to build a perfect society in which there will no longer be any sin and unhappiness and in which no opposition can be allowed to upset the universal harmony. Orsini’s book reconstructs the origins and evolution of a revolutionary tradition brought into our own times by the Red Brigades.</p>0200An award-winning attempt to understand the logic of revolutionary terrorism.0400<p>Introduction</p>
<p>1. The Pedagogy of Intolerance<br />
<em>The Revolutionary Vocation<br />
Violence as the Only Way<br />
The "Binary Code" Mentality<br />
Political Violence and Social Marginality<br />
Eschatological Politics</em></p>
<p>2. The Sacralization of Politics<br />
<em>The "Fanaticism of a New Religion"<br />
Radical Catastrophism<br />
The Revolutionary Sect and the Obsession with Purity<br />
The Hatred of Reformists</em></p>
<p>3. Toward the Bloodshed<br />
<em>Daily Life in a Revolutionary Sect<br />
The Red Brigades' Organization Plan<br />
The Blood Crime and Its "Story"<br />
The Path to Bloodshed<br />
Shedding Blood and the Role of the Revolutionary Sect<br />
The Detachment from the Surrounding World</em></p>
<p>4. The Genesis of the Red Brigades<br />
<em>The Red Brigades' Social Roots<br />
The "Cultural Lag" Theory<br />
When Were the Red Brigades Born?<br />
The Red Brigades: "Imbeciles" or Real Revolutionaries?<br />
Antonio Gramsci and "the Hour of Redemption"<br />
The Italian Communist Party's Role in the Genesis of the Red Brigades<br />
An Oxymoron: The "Leninist-Reformist" Party</em></p>
<p>5. The Masters of the Red Brigades<br />
<em>Illustrious Predecessors: Thomas Müntzer<br />
John of Leiden, King and Revolutionary<br />
The English Revolution and the Puritan Movement<br />
The French Revolution and the Jacobin Experiment<br />
Babeuf: "The world has plunged into chaos"<br />
Karl Marx's Pantoclastic Dream<br />
The Revolutionary Tradition of Russian Populism</em></p>
<p>6. The Purifiers of the World in Power<br />
<em>Lenin and State Terrorism<br />
The Bolshevik Revolution and the "Victims of the Victims"<br />
The Gulag, or The Promise Kept<br />
Mao and the Myth of the "New Man"<br />
The Cambodian Revolution</em></p>
<p>Not a Conclusion: Portrait of a Red Brigadist</p>
<p>Appendix: Red Brigades and Black Brigades</p>
<p>A Note on Method<br />
Bibliography<br />
Index</p>0600<p> "<em>Anatomy of the Red Brigades</em> successfully fills a gap in the scholarship by looking at a religious mindset when examining a form of terrorism that is not intrinsically connected to religion."—Ryan Shaffer, <em>Terrorism and Political Violence, </em>Volume 25, Issue 2, 2013</p>0600<p>"Are terrorists mad, bad, or a combination of the two? It takes a special sort of mind to prepare to kill large numbers of people on the basis of highly speculative political analysis. Orsini's remarkable book gets as close to any to understanding this sort of thinking."—Lawrence D. Freedman,<em> Foreign Affairs</em> (September/October 2011)</p>0600<p> "Alessandro Orsini dissects and analyses the roots of the political ideology of the Red Brigades. Even in a context of academic study, his talent is that of describing everything with great clarity, producing an analysis executed in a plain language which avoids any erudite intellectualism. . . . The book has at least two further merits. The first is that of showing the killing power of Red Brigade ideology based on the dehumanization of the Red Brigades' political enemies, a process which occurs within a psychological power, an emotional force field, called 'the revolutionary sect.’ The second is its timeliness. The book closes with a chapter devoted to the right-wing Black Brigades of the Seventies, but we are sure it can facilitate the understanding of terrorism as a cultural phenomenon even in its new modern forms, namely those that stretch their tragic and criminal reach into our daily lives."—Dante Notaristefano, President of the Italian Association of Victims of Terrorism</p>0600<p> "This is a compelling and accessible book that would benefit both scholars and practitioners in the field of terrorism and political violence. The Red Brigades were one of the most important terrorist groups in modern history. Alessandro Orsini has made an enormous scholarly contribution that explains why. In this way, Orsini's study is not only an explication of the Red Brigades, their background and modus operandi, but is also an examination into the timeless nature of terrorism itself"—<em>Perspectives on Politics</em></p>0600<p> "The book will be relevant to scholars not just interested in collective violence, but scholars who are interested in the dogmatization process of terrorists groups, of political ideology, and support for dictators in the contemporary world. This is a uniquely organized book, and it is my assessment that scholars in the future will be comparing it with Christopher Browning's monograph on Nazi holocaust, <em>Ordinary Men</em>."—<em>Mobilization</em></p>0600<p> "<em>Anatomy of the Red Brigades</em> is a disturbing journey into the suffocating, obsessive psychology of the Red Brigades mind-set. This book is captivating in its accounts, rich in its analysis, and profoundly important as an outstanding analysis of one of the bloodiest terrorist groups of the twentieth century."—John Horgan, Director, International Center for the Study of Terrorism, Penn State University</p>0600<p>"<em>Anatomy of the Red Brigades</em> provides a uniquely insightful and comprehensive account of one of history's most fascinating terrorist groups. Alessandro Orsini has written an important and original work that sheds new light on understanding the modern terrorist mind-set in general and the motivations of the Red Brigades specifically. His work thus makes a significant contribution to the literature on terrorists and terrorism."—Bruce Hoffman, Director, Center for Peace & Security Studies, Georgetown University, author of <em>Inside Terrorism </em></p>0600<p>"What if the terrorism that shook the Western world from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s were unconnected to the economic, political, and social conditions? It is this possibility that Alessandro Orsini examines in this extraordinarily well-researched and well-documented book. Orsini has discovered that the terrorist mind-set always exists just below the surface, is difficult to cope with, is difficult to change, is irrational, and is likely to resurface at any time under conditions we cannot predict."—Spencer DiScala, University of Massachusetts Boston</p>0600<p>"Alessandro Orsini has presented us with a book of high scholarly distinction. <em>Anatomy of the Red Brigades</em> is a tour de force of intellectual history and a major attempt to explain both the Italian experience with terrorism and terrorism in general."—<em>Journal of Cold War Studies</em> (reviewing the Italian edition)</p>0100030201D5020218903125068e03da42b4d45fe10f6e780cb6b013410722658http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/resources/titles/80140100746780/images/1e69276e3d5650de297e980aa4f59671/THUMBNAIL/9780801449864.jpg1720160926T1453Z15000402Reflections of the Italian Association of Victims of Terrorism0201E1070791853000http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/resources/titles/80140100746780/extras/AIVITER_ENGLISH_1_.pdfWinner of the 2010 Premio Acqui Storia A 2011Winner of the 2010 Premio Acqui Storia A 2011 Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year01Publisher's proprietary name codeCornell University PressCornell University Press0101Amazon2021862Cornell University PressIthacaUS040120110325112011032501WORLD0201GCOI80140100746780AL AD AM AT AZ BY BE BA BG HR CY CZ DK EE FO FI FR GE DE GI GR HU IS IE IT KZ LV LI LT MT BV HM MK PS UM0402065013546051314NBN International+44 (0) 1752 202301+44 (0) 1752 202333orders@nbninternational.com33www.nbninternational.comhttp://www.nbninternational.com29http://www.nbninternational.com02Y20320102Shorts0227.50GBPCA MX US040207203-3151Longleaf Services80084862248002726817customerservice@longleafservices.org33www.longleafservices.orghttp://www.longleafservices.org29http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu21320102Shorts0231.95USD